This site is named for the famous statement of US Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver from Missouri : "I`m from Missouri -- you'll have to show me." This site is dedicated to skepticism of official dogma in all subjects. Just-so stories are not accepted here. This is a site where controversial subjects such as evolution theory and the Holocaust may be freely debated.

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My biggest motivation for creating my own blogs was to avoid the arbitrary censorship practiced by other blogs and various other Internet forums. Censorship will be avoided in my blogs -- there will be no deletion of comments, no closing of comment threads, no holding up of comments for moderation, and no commenter registration hassles. Comments containing nothing but insults and/or ad hominem attacks are discouraged. My non-response to a particular comment should not be interpreted as agreement, approval, or inability to answer.

Monday, May 14, 2007

The myth of "meticulous" Nazi holocaust records

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (May 13) - As the Third Reich headed to defeat in World War II, the Germans burned millions of records to cover up history's worst genocide. But the fraction that survived was enough to make up the largest Nazi archive in existence . . . . .

. . . . . The 11-nation commission governing the International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, meets in Amsterdam Monday and Tuesday to decide when and how to make electronic copies of its files available to researchers.

So far the archive of 30 million to 50 million pages in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has been used only to help reunite families and verify restitution claims. The files were closed in 1955 because it was feared that unfettered access could violate the privacy of Holocaust victims, both living and dead.

Who in the hell cares about protecting the "privacy" of people who have been persecuted, tortured, and murdered?

The Nazis destroyed 90 percent of their files, said Dieter Pohl, of the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. The office headed by Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the transport of millions of Jews to the gas chambers, began burning its records in February 1945, nearly three months before Germany surrendered.

So not only were the overwhelming majority of the records destroyed, but what remained was not generally opened to researchers.

Among the documents that survived are millions of pages of death registers, concentration camp records, transport lists, and internal Nazi communications, such as Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler's command to evacuate the concentration camps before they were captured.

"No prisoner must be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive," it said.

Why would the Nazis have allowed such a document to fall into enemy hands? And we know that some prisoners were allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

Over the decades, the Tracing Service has responded to some 11 million inquiries from survivors or families, but it has rarely allowed anyone to view the actual records. However, the U.S. National Archive and Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial were allowed to copy some of them in the early 1950s.

>>>>>> Why would the Nazis have allowed such a document to fall into enemy hands?

Perhaps being forced to retreat under daily shelling and air raids alters one's priorities, and/or is dangerous to one's health. <<<<<<<

The article said that the Nazis had nearly three months to destroy the records. It seems that the above record would have been one of the first to go. Anyway, we know that the order was never carried out.

>>>The article said that the Nazis had nearly three months to destroy the records. It seems that the above record would have been one of the first to go. Anyway, we know that the order was never carried out.<<<

Larry apparently doesn't know any Holocaust history. The order was, in fact, carried out many times. But sometimes there wasn't enough time to carry out the order. Ever hear of death marches?

Laryy, here's an order. Post a response to this before anyone else posts.

Larry, you should know that your reputation is being impugned. Orac over at Respectful Insolence has decided that you aren't "the stupidest Holocaust denier of them all" You need to go over there and reclaim your title!